PCBE on Back-UPS Pro 900 or 1500?

[Anonymous user]

Hi.

I just acquired a Pro 900, and I really like it.

Now I want to buy another one (Pro 1500) to be able to safel shut down my other four servers in case of a power loss.

(I seems as if the Pro 1500 can provide up to 10 minutes battery power which will be sufficient to shut down all four machines. I do not need to have them running any longer, so the 1500 is ok for my needs.)

However, the Powerchute PE coming with my 900 can only shut down the machine it is directly connected to - and I assume that PCPE does come with the 155, too?

So, I am looking for a way to start an external command (say "shutdown ...") once a power loss occurs. PCPE is not able to call a command, but PCBE can do this - even in the "free edition".

But PCBE does not seem to see my 900 (and I assume that it wouldn't see a 1500 either). Can I do anything against this, or in other words:

Can I use PCBE in conjunction with a Back-UPS Pro 1500?

Thanks for any answer - especially a positive one 😉

Kind regards, Ralf Pichocki.

[BillP]

Shutting down multiple servers/devices is the general design of our higher end products in the Smart UPS product line. Back UPS products come with PowerChute Personal Edition for single computer use as far as graceful shutdown.

All Back UPS will come with PowerChute Personal Edition and Smart UPS come with PowerChute Business Edition. To shutdown multiple computers connected to one UPS, you'll need a Smart UPS with a Network Management Card and PowerChute Network Shutdown.

[Anonymous user]

Hi, Angela.

Thanks a lot for the quick reply. I know that I cannot shut down more than one compute directly, but I can do this manually buy using the Windows shutdown command.

However, my PCPE cannot call any Windows command whereas PCBE can do so.

So my only question is:

Can I use PCBE together with my Pro 900/1500?

[BillP · Accepted solution]

You might be able to get PCBE working with one Back UPS via simple signaling mode and a 940-0128 cable if you can find it. This is a RJ-45 to DB-9 serial cable.

Simple signaling mode provides little to no information on the PCBE web page but it will provide you info regarding UPS state - on battery, low battery state, or off. This would allow you to execute a command file to shut the other machines down if you cannot find another way to do it like with Native OS support or through something you figure out with PCPE and another third party application some how. This solution is very archaic and I wouldn't really recommend it even though it may work.